3.28.2011

Crockpot Chocolate Lava Cake

Well here it is my friends. The wonderful cake I was telling you about, that was baking in my CROCKPOT! I know there are many, many awesome things you can do in a crockpot, but I seriously had never heard of baking cakes in them! I was over at Tasty Kitchen checkin out all the great recipes, when I came across this cake.

I was so intrigued. A cake to be made in a crockpot sounded genius and amazing to me! Especially because it was a 'Lava' cake. I am in-love with the Moulten Chocolate Lava cake at Chilis restaraunt! Have any of you had that sinful treat? I LOVE it like no other. I think that Chocolate Lava Cakes are the greatest invention ever! I am such a choc-o-holic that I just could not resist printing this recipe and trying it immediatley.

It turned out simply AMAZING. It is warm... gooey... chocolatey bliss! You have to serve it with vanilla ice cream. Theres just no other way to eat it. Period. You can thank me later for telling you about it! ; )

CROCKPOT CHOCOLATE LAVA CAKE

FOR THE CAKE:

2 cups Brown Sugar

2 cups All-purpose Flour

6 Tablespoons Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

4 teaspoons Baking Powder

1 teaspoon Salt

1 cup Milk

4 Tablespoons Butter, melted

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

FOR THE FUDGE TOPPING:

1 1/2 cups Brown Sugar

1/2 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

3 cups Boiling Water

Directions: For the cake: Mix together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Stir in milk, melted butter and vanilla until combined. Spread the batter over the bottom of a large crockpot.

For the fudge topping: Mix together the brown sugar and cocoa. Sprinkle mixture over the cake batter.

Pour the boiling water over the top. DO NOT STIR! Cover and cook on High for 2 - 2 1/2 hours.

Cake will be very hot! Turn off heat, and remove lid. Let sit 20-30 minutes before serving, so its still warm but wont burn your mouth : ) ENJOY!!

I've never done anything like this in a crockpot but you've definitely convinced me that I need to! I am loving the way this looks and it sounds so easy. Can't wait to give it a try. Thanks for sharing :)Jennifer

O..this looks incredible!!!! I agree Chili's molten choc cake is one of my most favs for sure! I love how all the ingredients for this are simple and love that ya just throw it all in the crockpot and it does it's thing! YUMMMM and chocolatey!!!

I just made this. It may just be my slow cooker (I have a double one from CrocPot) but I left it on high for 2.5 hours and when I spooned out a serving, it was just goo. Leaving it on for an extra 30 mins. at least... Sigh. Tastes good though!

Oh MY Goodness! I honestly don't remember how I found your blog or this cake. I am pretty sure one related to the other : ) Anyway. I wanted to tell you thank you! It was WONDERFUL! I didn't have anyone say it wasn't chocolately or rich enough...I used dark brown sugar and Mexican Vanilla... only because that is what I had on hand. Yum, Yum~!

I have this cooking in my crock pot right now. It smells amazing! I can't wait to try it out. I also bought vanilla ice cream to put on top of it! Yummmm! This will hit the spot after our Chicken Pistachio balls smothered in a cream cheese sauce! Thanks!

I seem to be the only one, but mine didn't turn out well and I don't know what I did wrong!! The gooey part was very soupy, and the cake part was extremely dense...like a Little Debbie brownie. It was hard to even cut through. It TASTED deliciious, but i'd love to know how to make the textures work better!

Had this for dessert tonight! It was a HUGE hit! Thank you! I do however have some leftover and I'm not sure if I should refrigerate it or not. We will definitely make this again. It was so easy and it allowed me to use our oven while the cake was cooking in the crockpot so we were able to enjoy it right after dinner instead of having to wait!

@ Anonymous. I only have a large crockpot so I've never tried it in a small one. Maybe you could try cutting the recipe in half. That should work! Let me know if you try it.

To All others: I made this again the other weekend, and again we all LOVED it! Everyone has different taste buds. Some people like more sweetness in chocolate and others like not-so-sweet things. I dont know. Sorry to everyone who didnt enjoy it!

I made this last night in my crockpot, starting at 6pm. It was still soup at 8, 9, and 10pm. I figured I had nothing to lose so I left it cooking overnight.

By 9am it was cooked through, and I gave the kids a small snack pack to take to school. They loved it! There was not a lot of cake but a lot of "lava" (pudding). I used a little less of the sugar than called for and didn't pack it when measuring, and it was perfect. In terms of expectations: My experience is that it's definitely NOT like a lava cake from the oven, the cake is much denser and more like a steamed pudding, but still very delicious. This result may be from the amount of time mine was cooked, but didn't detract from the results. I didn't expect an oven cake from a slow cooker.

So for those of you who didn't get a good turnout, maybe try putting it in sometime in the morning and cooking it all day - if it's cooking too fast you can turn it down to "low" - it's quite good if you can get it to work. There's a lot of it, too, will serve a family of at least 4 with leftovers.

Thanks so much for sharing this recipe! :) I'll be checking out your blog for more tasty treats. Cheers!

I just tried this today. There is something off with the flavor. It turned out a sweet, chalky, paste. I think the texture would have been fine had the flavor been better. I feel like using cocoa just isn't enough to get the rich chocolatey flavor you're looking for in a lava cake. I might try to tweak the recipe to use actual chocolate and regular sugar instead of brown. There's just something not good about it. Unfortunately, this cake ended up down the garbage disposal :(

Made this today, oh my word it was AMAZING!!! Served it up to 3 men who all want the recipe!! My son is seriously thinking of going out and buying a Crockpot now, just so that he can make this in his flat! Found you on Pinterest!

Made this yesterday for family gathering, wasn't sure if this was a good choice since I hadn't made it before. The photo looks so inviting, so I went for it. I did have a few (but very few)concerns after reading all the comments. I pre-heated and pre-treated the crockpot with cooking spray as I mixed ingredients according to recipe. The only changes I made were in the cake batter, using 1 3/4 cups of brown sugar and 1/4 cup of granulated white sugar and I doubled the vanilla. I left the crockpot on high for 2 hours and then low temp for last 1/2 hour. I removed the lid and turned crockpot off after 2 1/2 hours, as the aroma was so tantalizing to all my choco loving granddaughters, actually the entire house smelled great! I spooned up a little of the 'lava', not be able to wait the recommended 30 minutes of set time to taste for flavor, it didn't disappoint. It was quite runny as previously commented on by others, however; it did thicken up some as time progressed. My guests were very anxious to try this new dessert Grandma found online. I had 16 people and not knowing how many this would serve I was probably stingy with the servings. I served with Cool Whip and the consensus was a 'thumbs up', to be entered on my menus for future get togethers. The family thought the Cool Whip was a better choice than ice cream, we'll see next time. Only 10 people tried this, but there was still enough left to probably serve at least 4 or 5 more. I would estimate that it would generously serve at least 12 people. By the time I put the leftover portion in the refrigerator the lava that was remaining (there wasn't much) was very thick. When serving your portions don't be overly generous with the lava that pours out as you spoon first servings, as it does have to last for rest of container. I don't really recall taste of any Molten Lava cakes at restaurants, so I can't compare, but I would definitely make this again, for both taste and convenience. Thank you!

How funny that it turns out so differently every time! I made this cake 3 or 4 times when I lived in New Mexico and it turned out a bit different every time, but it was still very good (I started adding a little less cocoa to the cake, my husband liked it better that way). We recently moved to Louisiana and I've only made it once so far, but it was very different! The batter seemed to be thinner, and instead of too much chocolate it tasted like too much brown sugar. I'm trying it again tonight using some white sugar in place of some of the brown sugar (maybe 1/2 a cup or so?) and I'm hoping it turns out well.

I'd also like to add that in New Mexico I used a large oval crockpot but in Louisiana I used a smaller round crockpot and there wasn't a difference in cook time. I kept it going on high for the full 2 1/2 hours and it was perfect!

Wow! I've never had something that looked and smelled so good taste so ... bad. Followed the directions to a "t", used all the same ingredient, and cooked it for 2 hours and 15 minutes. The flavor is off. It's not that it isn't edible; it's just not tasty. I will stick to my original lava cake recipe that came with my Kitchen Aid mixer. It's more work, but definitely worth it. On the up side, I'm looking forward to perusing your site.

Well since I have an extra large crock pot, guess I will have to make extra lava cake. That also means I WILL just force myself to buy extra ice cream too. I wonder how many miles I will have to walk to shed the extra pounds of flavor off my hips for this sin. Can't wait to try it!

So yummy Holly! I love getting new ideas from your blog on how to quench my chocolate cravings! I made it just how you said except I used dark chocolate(that's all I had) and it turned out great! DELICIOUS!